How do i ghost a pc?

I am having problems ie.internet, with one pc and i thought i could ghost one machine and copy it onto the other. How do i do that? Do i need to purchase more software! to do this. i am currently running Xp on a windows 2K server.

You can copy a partition or clone a hard drive with Norton Ghost (or PowerQuest Drive Image), which is fine for replacing the hard drive in the same PC or backing up an installation, but you may have problems using one PC's Windows Installation in a different PC. The hardware configuration will be all wrong, requiring Windows to install drivers for all of the new hardware it finds and, unless using the "corporate" version of XP Pro, might also have Product Activation problems.

Hi mgmcc, thanks for responding, Question!! would it make a difference if they were on a network? Both computers are the exact model, what should be on one is more or less on the other. They both run on xp, on a win2000 network. i thought it coud solve the issue of others loggin on with thier profiles. they can log on to computer 2, but not computer 1. Plus on comp1 they cannot access the internet and they can on computer 2. but as the administrator i can access the internet from both machines odd i know. Sooo i thought if i ghost'd the machine then the profiles should work on both. Another factor is that users could in the beginning access both computers including the internet. Thanks in advance,

If I were going to attempt it, I would get another hard drive and install it as "slave" to the one you want to copy. When the drive has been copied, remove the slave drive and install it as "master" in place of the existing drive in the second PC. That way, if it all goes pear-shaped, the original drive from the second PC is unchanged, can be put in again and you have lost nothing.

There used to be two "market leading" programs for backing up or cloning hard drives - PowerQuest "Drive Image" and Symantec's "Norton Ghost". Symantec now own the PowerQuest software and I suspect the new "Norton Ghost 9" may actually be a rebadged version of "Drive Image".